Article:Rowand And The Phils - A Cautionary Tale

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A lot of times, when the Phillies allow a popular player like Aaron Rowand to leave town, PhilsNation scratches its collective head. Sometimes there are obvious mitigating circumstances, and that's all well and good. We'd still like to see that the Phils had ponied up the dough.

In the case of Rowand, however, I'm with the Phillies. He got $60 mil for 5 years ($12 mil per year for those who don't feel like doing the math) from San Francisco. That doesn't sound like so much, does it? In baseball terms, that's pretty cheap.

But considering that Rowand is coming off a career year, and there's no indication that he'll ever be able to again have the kind of year he had in 2007, I think the Phillies were wise to tread cautiously here.

They've made some big, costly mistakes in recent years. They signed Lenny Dykstra, Darren Daulton, and Gregg Jefferies to big money, multiyear contracts and got badly burned on all three. In my humble opinion, they got the cumulative total of one good year from the three players. And Daulton and Dykstra remain two of the most overrated Phillies in the team's history.

So - let's forget about what might have been. If Rowand hits 30 homers, drives in 120 and scores 100 runs - then maybe Phils fans can be disgruntled. But how likely is that? If it does happen - hats off to Aaron Rowand. If it doesn't - the Phils just managed to find a better way to save $60 million.

And they'll need it. They still need pitchers. Maybe some of that Rowand money can be used for that purpose down the stretch. Or next year.